After serving 23 months in federal prison for his role in an interstate dogfighting ring, Michael Vick, the overall first selection in the 2001 National Football League draft and presently the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, has become a spokesperson for the National Humane Society of the United States.  Recently, Vick was in New Haven, Connecticut, speaking to middle and high school students about accountability, responsibility, and discernment in choosing friends.  [1]

Indeed, it is strange that even as Vick has made public appearances on behalf of the Humane Society, has publicly apologized for his felonious crime of bankrolling the Bad Newz Kennels dogfighting operation in which pit bull terriers were fought and some killed in the process, and—as many people forget or simply overlook—has already paid his so-called debt to society, there still remains oversized questioning about whether or not Vick is sincere in speaking about his past. 

In fact, there exists an insatiable public appetite for further apologies from Vick, who has become something of a Sisyphus, continuously rolling—not a boulder—but his own guilt for deeds previously redressed.  How many times must a man apologize for wrongdoing?  And for a man who has paid for his crime with time served in the penitentiary, what more apology is needed, especially to an anonymous public?

In American history, there are no bigger national atrocities than those of white settlers appropriating this expansive land originally occupied by native peoples and of chattel slavery, which lasted from 1619 to 1865.  Yet, not until July of 2008 did a branch of the federal government apologize for the “injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow.”  [2]  And not until President Obama signed “S.J.RES.14,” an apology “to all the Native Peoples on behalf of the United States,” in December 2009, did this republic acknowledge and attempt to make a gesture of atonement for the “official depredations and ill-conceived policies” inflicted upon Native Americans.  [3]

Of course, no comparison can be made between women, men, and children brutalized and killed by “our peculiar institution” and a dogfighting ring in Surry County, Virginia.  [4]  Yet the vitriol and inclemency heaped upon Vick might lead one to think that he himself was slave driver or master:

“I totally understand there’s going to be people who will never forgive me . . . I can’t change the perception of what they feel about me.  I understand that what I did was totally inhumane and unethical, but I can’t change it.  I don’t know what else I could do other than what I’m doing right now.”  [5]

But, apparently, Vick is not doing enough, since the media coverage surrounding his off-the-field persona is persistently framed in terms of whether or not he is sincere about his reformed position that dogfighting is morally bad.  During Vick’s three appearances in New Haven, the press (presumably) asked students if they thought Vick was sincere, if they believed he had undergone a real change of heart.

Dog owners, like Richard Hunter, are worse than the mass media in that they arrogantly believe that Vick’s destiny is somehow tied to whether or not they are ever going to allow him to “get beyond all this.”  [6]

ESPN sports reporter Kelly Naqi actually asked a handful of students in New Haven if they thought that Vick meant what he said about being regretful for fighting and killing dogs.  [7]

Everyday, white men, whether they are businessman, politicians, or entertainers say things that they do not mean.  Executives at British Petroleum made certain claims about the rate of barrels per day spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.  Was it 2.2 or 109.2 million gallons of oil pouring into those gulf waters?  [8]

When Robert Downey Jr. was released from the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in 2000, did the producer David E. Kelley of the TV series Ally McBeal seriously question whether or not Downey had kicked his dope addiction?

Apparently not—Downey joined the cast of the award-winning series and won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film.  However, Downey was fired from the show in April 2001 when he was arrested yet again on drug-related charges.  [9]

And since Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been reinstated to play in the N.F.L. after serving a four-game suspension for a breach of the personal conduct policy, stemming from allegations of sexual assault last March, this writer has not heard a single reporter question Roethlisberger’s commitment to sincerely being the type of person that his family raised him to be.  [10]

Although “a large percentage of the population will still think Michael Vick is a sociopath,” only those who benefit from conferred dominance based on skin privilege will arrogantly insist that they have the power or right to continually punish or chastise Vick for a crime for which he has already paid both in the clink and outside of it.  [11]

In addition to Vick’s crime, the hyperbolic affection that so many people show dogs in comparison to their fellow human beings is reprehensible.  A stranger will fawn over an unknown dog in the most mawkish manner, yet entirely ignore another human being who is down-and-out, living paycheck to paycheck, or even well-heeled.

Surely, the reason why New York Times sports columnist William C. Rhoden wrote that Vick “will forever be, in certain minds, a pariah” was not merely due to his killing a number of dogs.  [12]  Vick was already a pariah, and he expressed awareness of this fact when he said, “A lot of people were trying to say that I went to prison because of . . . who I was . . . I went to prison because what I was doing was wrong [italics mine].”  [13]

At best, black males in America are born with a probationary humanity until they grow older and perhaps become menaces (real or imagined); until they drop out of school and perhaps become invisible; until they simply stay “black” without becoming gladiatorial or celluloid idols in the eyes of popular America—in which case, nobody gives a damn what they do.

The Humane Society, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and the mass media do not squawk so much about poor or anonymous black men fighting dogs in urban and rural America.  Is anyone so obtuse as to believe that Michael Vick’s actions were somehow unprecedented?  Does anyone believe that Vick’s conviction will mark the end of dogfighting?

ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon recently debated who could “repair [his] image most quickly”—LeBron James, Tiger Woods, or Michael Vick.  [14]  Of the three, only Vick committed a crime.  Yet, all three of them have been drubbed by Americans at large, far worse than white celebrities who have repeatedly broken the law.  After all, who is more of a fuck-up than Charlie Sheen?  [15]

Come to think of it, the case of Michael Vick is not so curious.  We have seen it before in American history . . . that quenchless thirst for the persecution and demise of black men—the more renowned of them, the better.  [16]

Sources:

[1] William C. Rhoden, “The Public Confessions of a Disgraced Dogfighter,” New York Times, November 23, 2010, accessed November 28, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/sports/football/24rhoden.html?_r=1&ref=michael_vick.

[2] “House apologizes for slavery, ‘Jim Crow’ injustices, July 29, 2008, accessed November 28, 2010, http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-29/politics/house.slavery_1_african-american-slavery-white-lawmaker?_s=PM:POLITICS.

[3] “S.J.RES.14.IS,” accessed November 28, 2010, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.J.RES.14:.

[4] “Our peculiar institution” was a euphemism for chattel slavery in the American South.  See Alexander Stevens, “Cornerstone Speech” (speech, Savannah, GA, March 21, 1861).

[5] Rhoden, “The Public Confessions of a Disgraced Dogfighter.”

[6] Bill Plaschke, “Dog owner can’t forgive Michael Vick,” Los Angeles Times, November 16, 2010, accessed November 28, 2010, http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/16/sports/la-sp-plaschke-20101117.

[7] Outside the Lines, television program, Kelly Naqi, ESPN, November 24, 2010.

[8] Kate Sheppard, “In 2008, BP Touted New Tech to Measure Oil Flow,” Mother Jones, June 11, 2010, accessed November 28, 2010, http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/06/bp-still-playing-dumb-about-size-gulf-disaster.

[9] “Robert Downey Jr. Fired from Ally McBeal after Another Arrest,” April 25, 2001, accessed November 28, 2010, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,15876,00.html.

[10] “Ben Roethlisberger’s ban at 4 games,” September 4, 2010, accessed November 28, 2010, http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5527564.

[11] Plaschke, “Dog owner can’t forgive Michael Vick.”

[12] Rhoden, “The Public Confessions of a Disgraced Dogfighter.”

[13] Ibid.

[14] Pardon the Interruption, television program, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, ESPN, December 3, 2010.

[15] Sheila Marikar, “Charlie Sheen: Plaza Hotel Incident Was Just ‘One Bad Night,’” November 8, 2010, accessed November 28, 2010, http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/charlie-sheen-plaza-hotel-incident-bad-night/story?id=12089631.

[16] Before his eventual confirmation as an associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas referred to his Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, which turned into a somewhat lurid affair mired in allegations of sexual harassment by Thomas toward his Equal Employment Opportunities Committee employee Anita Hill, as “high-tech lynching for uppity blacks.”  See “An Outline of the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas Controversy,” accessed November 28, 2010, http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/hill/hilloutline2.htm.